For all who follow this trend of thought, by way of analogy, imagine what your reaction would be if a novelist were to tell you, "I am going to write a novel about your family, in which you will be portrayed as a band of criminals and perverts. I am going to use your real name and the names of your parents and grandparents. All the information regarding your family - a fair bit of which will, in fact, be true - will be presented as if it were the product of careful historical research. But - not to worry - it's only a novel, and afterwards I'll give you a chance to respond to the falsehoods in my book."
It is marketed as FICTION.
It would depend entirely on how much time passes. Thomas Wolfe was vilified in Asheville, NC, when "You Can't Go Home Again" came out; too many people recognized themselves and each other. Now, nearly seventy years after his death, he's a favorite son and tourist attraction for the town.
Substitute the name Muhammed for Jesus in the above article and there would be blood in the streets and the author would hide to preserve his life.
Total non-sequitor as a comment.
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"America is a much different place in the year 2100. What was a thriving, democratic country reaching for the planets and beyond at the end of the second volume of the series is now a theocracy typified by brutal repression and backward-thinking. Heinlein provides some information about the three unwritten tales that would describe the rise to power of evangelist Nehemiah Scudder, the First Prophet who tore asunder the Constitution and set up a regime as repressive and backwards-thinking as anything from the Middle Ages. In 2100, Scudder is gone, but a First Prophet reigns in his name. There are virgins to "serve" the First Prophet, and there are "Angels of the Lord" (such as protagonist John Lyle) charged to protect his safety. Pariahs are frequently attacked and repressed by the government to further its dictatorial control, and history has been essentially deleted and replaced by a new version of America's story drilled into the heads of all youngsters. For those who dare resist, a modern Inquisition exists to punish and torture them -- there is no bigger fear than of being subjected to The Question. Still, there are revolutionaries, even among the palace guard, and John Lyle finds himself joining their ranks after having fallen for a deaconess serving under the Prophet. The account of Lyle's soul-searching conversion from loyal soldier to doubting pariah is well told, as is the story of his admission to the cabal and attempt to escape the service of the Prophet. Once outside of the palace grounds, the narrative takes on a science-fiction feel built around the plans of the cabal to overthrow the corrupt theocracy. The transformation of Lyle is fascinating; as he discovers the unknown history of a free America and reads the words of men such as Thomas Paine [!] for the first time, he has little choice but to accept the fact that the world of his youth was based on falsehood and corruption." |
This is a very good article.
I don't think it delves deeply enough, though, into gnosticism's role in Brown's work.
Man, this yearning for "secret societies" by this kook. Was he never accepted into the chess club as a kid?
Maybe the local chapter of the Stonecutters has an opening for him. This is a pretty funny piece in all seriousness. Goddess "worship" == free sex, and prostitution. Seems like he missed the free love movement.
As Christopher West states in his 'Theology of the Body' series... "If you want to know what is the most sacred look for what is the most violently profaned in our society".
This is EXACTLY where we are today - right now - in the West. The media, along with liberals in general have long sought to diminish and blur the line between good and evil, claiming that we should all be "open-minded" and tolerant. No one can judge, truth is relative, they proclaim. Why else are we having such a rough go of it in our war on terrorism? Because the media/liberals all see us as evil aggressors rather than the liberators we are. They hate the moral code of the West and are desperately trying to wither our national resolve.
This is a dangerous time. If they win the battle over these fundamental issues they will wreak much destruction and misery.
I hate to put things in a political context, but I truly believe that one of the reasons there is this sheer hatred for President Bush is because he does see things with moral clarity and they HATE this. They view this as arrogant, the swagger. The whole issue of Bush not being able to "admit" a mistake was really all about Bush's moral clarity and moral code that they wanted him to renounce.
These are important times. Times that will require moral heroes.
Am I a Kennedy?
Sorry, IMO Dr. Mangalwadi gives
Dan Brown WAY too much credit
for aspiring intellect and religious
introspection! If anything influenced
Brown toward viewing the Last Supper
as a "ritual of 'sacred sex'," it would
more likely be his college American
Literature course. It was so
fashionable in the 60's & 70's for
Professors to assimilate Melville's
ritual of squeezing the brains of
the whale in MOBY DICK as a sexual
orgy.
Hogwash! I could as well suggest
that this Eastern penchant for
demeaning women may well be the
origin of reevaluating their status
in the next life to a plane of
Virgins Awaiting Mohammed's arrival!
This was a tremendous achievement and one of which the Christian West can be justly proud. The status of women in the West has always been higher than in the Islamic world and India, probably higher than in Asia as well most of the time.
The problem is not so much whether or not the book is "marketed" as fiction, as the fact that the left is treating it as a valid accusation and Christianity is being forced to defend against it.
Interesting article, but he must have read a different novel than I did. The author's "interpretation" of various parts of the book goes way beyond reading between the lines, it is more like he simply made it up to support his own prejudices.
In Canaan, Babylon and other eastern societies, perhaps. Not in Greek or Roman societies, where the "sacred prostitutes" were generally slaves.
The author shows a drastic lack of knowledge here about the classical world.
Abortion and infanticide were never the woman's choice, although she could obviously kill her baby on the sly. Decisions about whether a child would be carried to term or exposed after birth were entirely up to the master of the house, with regard to both his wife and his slaves.
Except in Sparta, where the state made these decisions.
When will the American (and World) public get it through their skulls--IT'S A WORK OF FICTION.
Yes, it's only a novel, but the US public thanks to our public education system is mostly ignorant of history and science and has not read any serious theology or philosophy. For example, look to Hollywood for the kook religion dujour.